ALBERT

Description: From September 22nd 1951 until April 19th 1952 I stayed, with my wife as a good companion and technical assistant, in the Netherlands Antilles to make an ornithological survey of these islands. This work, which included both making a collection of studyskins and gathering field data and distributional records, was done under the auspices of the Foundation for Scientific Research in Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles (“Natuurwetenschappelijke Studiekring voor Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen”) and was financed by the Government of the Netherlands Antilles. I am greatly indebted, therefore, to the Government officials of the Netherlands Antilles, particularly to Mr. J. H. Sprockel, minister of Education, and to the staff of the Department of Education. My thanks are also due to the members of the board of the “Studiekring”, among whom I should not forget to mention in deep appreciation the names of Dr P. Wagenaar Hummelinck and Dr J. H. Westermann. The trustees of the University of Amsterdam and the director of the Zoological Museum kindly granted me 8 months study-leave and released me from my responsibilities as curator of the Zoological Museum during this period. Sincere thanks are also due to board and members of the Natural Sciences Study Group Netherlands Antilles (“Natuurwetenschappelijke Werkgroep Nederlandse Antillen”), who never failed to help us magnificently, making our stay on the islands a most exillerating experience. This first part of the scientific reporting on our voyage deals with the birds of St. Martin, Saba, and St. Eustatius. These small islands are among the most northerly of the group known as the Lesser Antilles (fig. 1).

Description: This is the second and concluding part of a report on the birds of the Netherlands Antilles, the first part dealt with the birds of St. Martin, Saba, and St. Eustatius (Studies fauna Curaçao Car. Is. 6, no. 25, 1955, p. 1-82). The present part will give a full account of the birds of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire. Accompanied by my wife I stayed in these islands from September 22, 1951 until April 19, 1952, only interrupted by a week’s visit to Venezuela and the period between February 1 and March 14, 1952, when we were working in St. Martin, Saba, and St. Eustatius. Our collection of birds from Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire comprizes 986 specimens, representing 103 species, all of which have been deposited in the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam. Although part of the collection has been prepared in the field by my wife and me, a not unimportant number of collected birds was kept in the freezing rooms of the Abattoir of the Veterinary Service in Curaçao (Parera) and Aruba (Oranjestad), from where it was shipped to Holland under deep-freezing temperatures and subsequently prepared by the taxidermists of the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam. For most valuable help in this matter of preserving our specimens, which considerably facilitated our work in the field, we are greatly indebted to Mr. J. W. M. Diemont, Director, Mr. B. A. Bitter, and other employees of the Veterinary Service of the Netherlands Antilles.

Description: In the course of the preparation of the book on “De Vogels van de Nederlandse Antillen” (“Birds of ths Netherlands Antilles”), which will be published very soon (obtainable through Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, and Boekhandel Salas, Curaçao), it became apparent that the bananaquits (Coereba flaveola) from Bonaire required a new subspecific name. Full details on the occurrence of Coereba flaveola in the group of Netherlands Leeward Islands (Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire) will be found in my forthcoming monograph on the birds of these islands, in the 7th volume of these Studies, as well as in the above mentioned book.

Description: The presence of five specimens of Gough Island Gallinules, Porphyriornis nesiotis comeri ALLEN, in the Zoological Gardens of Amsterdam originating from the remote Gough Island situated within the subantarctic confines of the South Atlantic Ocean, offered a favourable occasion for a study of these peculiar and rare birds. The Gough Island Gallinule is presently the only surviving representative of its species; the Tristan da Cunha form, P. nesiotis nesiotis (P. L. SCLATER), having been exterminated by man probably nearly a century ago. It belongs to a group of rails of which also the Moorhen or Common Gallinule, Gallinula chloropus, is a representative. From the latter species it differs among others by having greatly reduced powers of flight. One can wonder, however, about the degree of relationship between members of the genus Gallinula on the one hand and the Gough Island Gallinule on the other hand. In fact, the general appearance of the Gough Island Gallinule is that of a very stout, strongly legged Common Gallinule with a more skulking, less graceful gait. The birds in captivity in the Amsterdam Zoo were very pugnacious, a habit which has also been recorded by previous authors. When in pursuit of each other the birds frequently uttered a sharp, rattling call, which was also described by HOLDGATE (1958) from birds observed in Gough Island and transliterated as a rapid \xe2\x80\x9cchack-chack\xe2\x80\x9d. It seems that this call has not been recorded from any member of Gallinula chloropus. In spite of these differences RIPLEY (1954), in reviewing the \xe2\x80\x9cgenera\xe2\x80\x9d Gallinula, Porphyriornis and Ionornis, has doubted the justification of the use of a separate genus name for the Flightless Gallinules from Tristan and Gough Island, which he would prefer to treat as members of the genus Gallinula. This question will again be considered here.

Description: A survey is presented of the status of species boundaries in nontropical Northern Hemisphere owls in order to investigate the reality of the biological and geographical species concept applied to these owls in current handbooks. At the same time the practicability of evolutionary systematics as opposed to phylogenetic synthesis is elaborated on.

Description: Recently RIPLEY (1941) has prepared a systematic revision of the Indo-Australian members of the genus Coracina (Cuckoo-Shrike), which for a considerable time had been in a state of great confusion. RYPLEY\xe2\x80\x99s new arrangement represents a noteworthy step in the appreciation of the systematics of this difficult genus. Since only taxonomy and representative distribution have been taken into account by RIPLEY, resulting in the arrangement of 12 species into 3 superspecies and 7 isolated forms, certain problems still remain unsettled. It is the purpose of this paper to deal with some of these problems and to propose an arrangement of the Indo-Australian forms of Coracina not only in accordance with their taxonomy, but also with the history of their distribution. Special attention has been praid to the relative length and shape of the bill, which character RIPLEY almost entirely neglected. According to this method we have arrived at a somewhat different grouping, as will be discussed below.\nThis may be also the place to notice that, contrary to a recent opinion, brought forward by DELACOUR (1946) and others, we still consider the limits of the genus Coracina as opposed to Edolisoma, sufficiently defined by the different shapes of the bill.

Description: This is the second and concluding part of a report on the birds of the Netherlands Antilles, the first part dealt with the birds of St. Martin, Saba, and St. Eustatius (Studies fauna Cura\xc3\xa7ao Car. Is. 6, no. 25, 1955, p. 1-82). The present part will give a full account of the birds of Aruba, Cura\xc3\xa7ao, and Bonaire.\nAccompanied by my wife I stayed in these islands from September 22, 1951 until April 19, 1952, only interrupted by a week\xe2\x80\x99s visit to Venezuela and the period between February 1 and March 14, 1952, when we were working in St. Martin, Saba, and St. Eustatius. Our collection of birds from Aruba, Cura\xc3\xa7ao, and Bonaire comprizes 986 specimens, representing 103 species, all of which have been deposited in the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam. Although part of the collection has been prepared in the field by my wife and me, a not unimportant number of collected birds was kept in the freezing rooms of the Abattoir of the Veterinary Service in Cura\xc3\xa7ao (Parera) and Aruba (Oranjestad), from where it was shipped to Holland under deep-freezing temperatures and subsequently prepared by the taxidermists of the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam. For most valuable help in this matter of preserving our specimens, which considerably facilitated our work in the field, we are greatly indebted to Mr. J. W. M. Diemont, Director, Mr. B. A. Bitter, and other employees of the Veterinary Service of the Netherlands Antilles.

Description: In the course of the preparation of the book on \xe2\x80\x9cDe Vogels van de Nederlandse Antillen\xe2\x80\x9d (\xe2\x80\x9cBirds of ths Netherlands Antilles\xe2\x80\x9d), which will be published very soon (obtainable through Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, and Boekhandel Salas, Cura\xc3\xa7ao), it became apparent that the bananaquits (Coereba flaveola) from Bonaire required a new subspecific name. Full details on the occurrence of Coereba flaveola in the group of Netherlands Leeward Islands (Aruba, Cura\xc3\xa7ao, and Bonaire) will be found in my forthcoming monograph on the birds of these islands, in the 7th volume of these Studies, as well as in the above mentioned book.

Description: This is a report on a small collection of birds from the Tristan da Cunha group and Gough Island in the southern Atlantic Ocean made by Mr. N. SCHEER, Officer in Charge of the Weather Station at Tristan da Cunha in the years 1958\xe2\x80\x941960. The collection consists of 13 specimens from Tristan, 23 from Nightingale Island and 7 from Inaccessible Island, as well as 7 from Gough Island. A total of 22 species is represented. Field records by Mr. SCHEER have been added to the report; local names of most of the species, as noticed by Mr. SCHEER, have been given in quotation marks.\nConsidering the recent publications on the birds of these islands (BROEKHUYSEN & MACNAE, 1949; HAGEN, 1952; RAND, 1955; ELLIOTT, 1957) the collection contributes hardly any new facts to the knowledge of this interesting insular fauna. Still it contains members of any of the known species of land birds, including one specimen of the remarkable Inaccessible Island Flightless Rail (Atlantisia rogersi) and two of the rare Grosbeak Bunting from Nightingale Island ( Nesospiza wilkinsi winkinsi); only the Grosbeak Bunting from Inaccessible Island (N. w. dunnei) is lacking in the collection. Both the most abundant bird species in the islands (Great Shearwater, Puffinus gravis: probably at least two million breeding pairs, according to ROWAN, Ibis, 94, 1952, p. 97-121), and the scarcest (Grosbeak Bunting, Nesospiza wilkinsi: probably less than 100 breeding pairs, according to ELLIOTT, 1957) are represented in the collection by a few specimens.

Description: Ever since it became apparent that terrestrial animals ranging over large continental areas generally showed a certain degree of gradual geographic variation, attention has been focused on the colour variation of the Jay, Garrulus glandarius, in Europe. Surely the Jays belong to those species of palearctic land birds in which the formation of geographical differences must be considered to be exceptionally favoured: HARTERT (1903\xe2\x80\x941922; including HARTERT & STEINBACHER 1932) recognized as many as 10 European races of the Jay by name, whereas Kleiner (1935\xe2\x80\x9438) in his monographic treatment of the species numbered as many as 9 races in the same region. In several instances of the geographic variation of the Jay the differences are exceedingly striking, e.g. between the reddish brown Jays from Ireland and the dark grey ones from northern and central Europe. Still, the intergradations are so gradual and the individual variation is so unexpectedly large, that the application of subspecific names as a method of expressing geographical variation has proved to meet with serious difficulties. The resulting confusion of names for years has stressed geographical differences being of only minor importance and has obscured others meriting a closer attention.\nHowever, it was not at all for nomenclatorial purposes that this study was started, nor in order to propose a new arrangement of the geographic races of the Jay in Europa. That, in spite of this, these topics have been dealt with in one of the following chapters of this paper must be explained from the fact that the author failed to see a possibility to avoid them. The main purpose of this study was to investigate instances of \xe2\x80\x9cclinal variation\xe2\x80\x9d, meaning the presence and the origin of geographical character gradients. \xe2\x80\x9cCharacter gradients in the frequencies or in the expression of variable characters\xe2\x80\x9d (DOBZHANSKY 1947, p. 67) occurring in continuous geographical areas have seriously attracted the attention of students of population genetics and of micro-evolution. Hence it seemed worth while to select a suitable subject for a comparison of local individual variation with geographical variation and to study the origin of the clines. This is what the author has tried to do in the course of the present study on Garrulus glandarius.